Humans of old imagined a dying world as a tempest raging and destroying everything. This was the state the city of basins was in. Pouring rain choked its marshes, covered its slopes while winds cracked the stone open. Thunder deafening overhead.
Those ruins had never been more alive. Even as a ritual gone wrong was causing havoc, it had never had as much magic. Those clouds, that lightning, the shattering pillars and dying beasts meant a bright future.
That the mana drain would snuff out.
Even broken, the ritual still flared. Its patterns raged aimlessly at the realm. The vast cavern was shaking from all that destruction.
I was restrained, my clay limbs chained by magic. The bird monster before me had recovered from my attacks.
But I had not failed yet, far from it.
She brought her scepter back behind her feathers, rose her other hand and showed me her palm. One magic circle, then two, appeared between us.
She was aiming for my stone tablet. Intent to kill the golem before her.
Earthworks!
The pillars broke all around, their debris swirling madly, whipping where she had stood. Rocks as large as a cart darted around in the chaos.
No, I could not control the earth without touching it. But her ritual's patterns were and I had travelled through them, I could use them for my art. And she had drawn those patterns all over the place!
Yes, that was the problem with rituals! Lose control and anyone could hijack them!
She avoided the projectiles, blew up a large slab that scattered away. It was but mere pebbles to her but gave me ample time to prepare my next trick. And for her to devise a new scheme.
We vied for the patterns at the same time.
The whole cave shook from that confrontation! A basin fell afar, a whole basin, a village wide, slowly crumbled into the depths.
A dozen blades lashed at her! She parried, she dodged and still got grazed, escaped the melee to see translucid shapes facing her. Now her patterns sustained summons from the moonlight.
And her? She had cast... beacon.
As the ritual writhed, bursting mana on the walls, it cried for help, attracting all creatures at an almost instinctive level. She wanted to attract the human! Get more mana, turn the table that way!
The blades fell on her in a flurry. Normally mere monsters would not have been able to land a single hit, let alone ghosts of them, but through the chains I could control their motions and so, with a dozen weapons, I started to break through her defense.
Earthworks! And as she broke that large rock more shapes emerged, in that moonlight glow, from the very debris she had created. Another graze at her arm, another axe ripped her side! Earthworks! This time the volley mowed her with rage.
And with that the chains broke, releasing me.
Our weapons crossed once more, the polearm ready to break her scepter when all of my movements slowed down dramatically. What? When! It took me a whole second to find the source.
She had sculpted a totem out of the remains of a pillar!
And because I had already broken it for projectiles, the patterns there were gone!
Hit! The scepter's pole felt like a piercing hammer. Hit! Another crack appeared in my chest. Was it my whole body being slowed down? Or only my perception? Hit! I had recoiled and exposed my back. She reappeared behind me to give the lethal blow.
"Stop it!" The teenager screamed.
She struck anyway. Hit! The plate broke, the scepter plunged into the soft clay, churning in, missing the tablet by nothing! Just the shock had me faint and as I recovered I realized she had disengaged.
What kept me floating? Oh. The storm had gone mad enough that gravity had started to invert.
They were fighting above. Or rather, the human was busy evading her attacks. Howling spirits in pursuit, trailing, gaining only to miss at the last second.
"You don't have to do this!" The boy yelled at her.
That bird monster simply brandished her scepter, let the bells ring once more. Implosion. The best way to take care of a weak flier: just collapse the sky on him.
But his wings proved stronger, got him out of those traps and he kept circling around her, with her only turning her head to follow him.
"We don't have to fight! We are saving the world, why don't you join her?!"
As sole answer she summoned her elemental. The giant harpy opened massive wings and slowly approached the human.
He avoided her claws once, twice and then realized the whole spirit was going to collide with him. So he flew right through and in that flight pierced a whole in the summon's chest.
It shrieked, then slowly turned, only to be surprised by the warped reality around it.
The wyvern!
He had been lurking in the desert this whole time, keeping the bird from fleeing. But with the human engaged he had now chosen to join the fray.
"Nadjal, please!" The human had stopped just in front of her. "We don't have to be enemies!"
I had finally focused enough to cast a fireball at the totem, blowing it up and breaking the curse. What was this fool doing?! He practically offered his heart to her.
So of course, she aimed for hit, her talons missing by just a hair. The boy brought back his arms against his wounded chest.
Behind him the wyvern finished tearing the elemental apart.
"Give it to me." His rumbling voice echoed in the vast cave.
For sole answer the bird brought forth her scepter again, but saw the human intercede once more.
"If it's magic you want I have plenty! If you want to leave we will let you!"
"No!" The wyvern screamed through his wing. "None will leave. Renege on your word and the truce is over."
I caught the human just before the two titans clashed.
His void magic against her shield. As she chanted his body started to burn of those sicklish flames. He exhaled, pushed her further down. How could she even resist?!
"Let me go!" The boy was protesting. "We have to stop them!"
"Neither of them is your friend!"
"I still want to save them both!"
What was he even talking about!? Helping the bird, I could understand, but the wyvern? That beast that wanted to kill all humans?
But even the bird monster was too far gone.
She had to hold her scepter in both hands to hold her chant and still lost ground, slowly sinking under the pressure. Yet the monster that crushed her was reeling as well. Her ability to steal magic against his soul leech, her mad incantations against void spells.
It was mutually assured destruction.
And that would be the best outcome. Two threats gone and with them the secrets of Hashal. That was best, right? The way to Earth, buried for good. Even after all that was done to access that knowledge, even with all it promised. Wasn't it best to safeguard humans?
"Kaele, she is friendly! She will listen to us, we just have to try!"
He didn't know the tenth of who she was. No matter how good the human system could be, it could not deliver all that bird had gone through.
"Please!"
Fine! Per my master's will!
"Go back to Nasse and swear you'll protect him."
I let him go, which immediately made me fall away. The armor on my arms was damaged but still giving me lift. I flew back to the combatants.
For as bad as plunging into a titans' battle was, it was the least of my worries. I was a caster and the whole cave was now so chaotic that casting anything would be a miracle.
So I knew exactly what that called for.
Tracing!
Writing directly into magic itself, one of the rawest way to cast and a craft I was far away from mastering. But if I wanted any chance of breaking their deadly lock, I had no choice. And so I imitated a gesture from long, long ago.
The first attempt failed, blasting my right arm. No matter! I tried again, traced with my finger and felt magic resist me. I had never felt this electric!
Obliterate!
In truth, my second attempt had failed as well. Still, the result was good enough that after the blinding light receded, both foes were separated and in tatters. There, pretty much, was no cave anymore. Only several rings of debris orbiting around my position.
The last basins above were breaking apart.
"Enough!" I yelled. "Calisle! What good is your death if humans live! Nadjal! Who cares about the location of a place none can reach!"
"Save your breath." She coldly answered. "I swore to keep those secrets from all but one."
I stretched my arm, opened the fist and let my weapon emerge to clutch it. Then, I pointed the curved blade toward her. It was Adhipatya, the domination, a relic crafted to force monsters into subservience.
"Then I will make you!"
"Do you think the location enough?" The wyvern had started to speak in my back. "I want it all. To crack their haven, I need it all."
"You too will abide by the truce! Show patience or lose everything here!"
He stood silent for a few seconds, then brought his wing forth once more. His whole body was broken, on the verge of turning to dust. His tone had found its usual mockery again.
"Very well, dear friend. The location will suffice."
And the bird in turn: "The place you seek is in the desert of Alunra. Where the glass fleet met its end, the refuge lies under."
"Alunra." The skeletal beast repeated. "What a disappointing truth. I knew this hole all along. It is empty, yet death awaits all who enter. Tell me, vulture, do you cherish humans so much as to protect their haven?"
"You seek to disturb a prison."
What?
What did she mean a prison? No, no no no, wyvern! He wouldn't dare letting her go!?
Her mist was already enveloping her. The skeleton had all the power he needed to stop it but let her do. I watched her get engulfed, her and her severe wounds. Her warded eyes were turned on me.
Curse you! A prison?! The humans' final craft, their masterpiece? A prison!?
Ah. I was falling. With my spell's effect breaking off and my armor basically gone I was going to crash down. It was fine. The stone tablet had tolerable odds to resist that shock.
"Hold on, dear friend." The wyvern picked me up. "Our truce has yet to bear fruit. And you have still to devour your lamb. Thank you. Truly. It may be a crumb, but you have done more for human demise than I in many years."
See? I could be friendly! Also, I could not answer, I was that broken.
That beast let me fall a few meters above the human and Nasse before flying a fair bit away. Even without calling soul leech, just the warping of his anti-magic was enough to exhaust life.
"Kaele!" The human exclaimed.
I was fine, promise. A bit scattered but nothing a few months of repair could not fix.
"That will take time." The magnal confirmed.
In all this the fire lizard had come unscathed, only drenched and still stressed by the ongoing storm.
And of course the human felt the need to waste mana to repair me.
"Calisle, what happened? I saw Nadjal has left, is that okay?"
But the wyvern ignored him and instead brought its wing to talk to the pile of clay junk.
"Why don't we tell your companions about your other discovery? It seems Veleter has kept himself busy. That worm is repeating a message all over the realm. No doubt believing it can change the balance. And of course, you know the place it comes from."
Its broken skull lowered to chuckle once more.
"Why don't we go and visit that oasis?"